Poetry of the People - Jennifer Bartell Boykin

This week's Poet of the People is Jennfer Bartell Boykin. I first met Jennifer when she was a student at the University of South Carolina and she has graced the mic of poetry events I host in the Midlands. She is busy advocating for poetry throughout our community and I encourage you to hear her if you have an opportunity.; she is an insightful and delightful poet and serves us the Poet Laureate of Columbia, SC. - you won't be disappointed.

Bio:
Jennifer Bartell Boykin is from Bluefield, a Black community in Johnsonville, South Carolina. She is the Poet Laureate of Columbia, South Carolina, writes poetry and nonfiction and teaches in Columbia, SC. http://www.jenniferbartellpoet.com/
She has a new book, 'Traveling Mercy.'

Your Grandfather’s Collard Green Patch

I watch the boys play
at a tailgate of his truck.
Or I should say only one
is kneeling in the dirt.
Three black boys. Two black men.
In a field between Lynchburg
and Bishopville. Where the cotton
has already been picked, piled, and hauled
off. Their grandfather’s collard greens
stand proud in the background.
The one kneeling is listening
to the dirt, learning how to make
it yield. And it is the granddad’s
voice that whispers back into his
ear. The collard greens standing
proudly in the background, their price
already haggled. They will be New Year’s
greens with the field peas and black eyed-peas,
our chance for good luck even though
Omicron is looming, and Delta has yet to leave.
But still the grandfather smiles and the grandsons
laugh, because this overcast Wednesday
is one more day.

Waiting: Starbucks on Piney Grove

for Mary Kathryn Coleman

 Feels like I’ve been here before but
it is the first time. I’m trying to be
within myself. I’m looking out of the
window at the yellow and black design
of Waffle House. I am sipping my coffee
drink, that is more than just coffee;
my coffee game is notoriously weak.
My father drank Sanka. Instant
coffee. That’s decaffeinated. And that
is my coffee blood line. I’m trying
to get some writing done. I’m trying
not to look at the three teenagers
together, but not, each on their phones,
a convex mirror to the outside world.
This is how to hang with your friends
and not. In this world we have managed
to build for ourselves. To be trapped in
the orbit of our own small illuminated
planet. The baristas are baristering.
People come in and out,
some to pick up their mobile orders,
others to get orders to go. The only
other person in here is a guy on his laptop.
Is this his office? A woman comes in with
her daughter. I am waiting for my friend
who I haven’t seen in months, who has
had a baby since last I saw her, who has
bought a house. The guy on his laptop
is packing up. He is moving on too, but
here I will remain, to wait for my friend.
To see her and smile, and laugh
because it’s been too long because of life,
but because of COVID too. Thanksgiving
is tomorrow, and most days I am grateful
for the simple breath that keeps this body
upright from day to day. Thanksgiving
is a Day of Mourning. But I am going to go
to somebody’s house and eat some macaroni
and cheese. It better be good. I digress.
There’s wonder in the wait. The Always Open,
the hotels and restaurants that surround this place,
the interstate just in the distance.

 Home

for Monifa Lemons

 Santee, you see is where you meet me,
with arms like poetry flung wide
and a smile
that could love and cut
at the same time. 

When you think of South Carolina,
you think of home and where
the ancestors walked and where,
if you are real quiet and still,
you can hear the Spanish moss
whispering your name. 

Santee, you see, is where us tribe be,
but us tribe be in the air and everywhere
and infinity times two. At Santee we got
poetry and poetry got us.

Muh knee is fa’ praying
and Monifa praying that
BLACK LIVES MATTER
BLACK POETS MATTER
SC is ours. They can’t have it.

Santee, you see, is where you met me,
but not where you left me.
We walk this dirt road to find
The Watering Hole, to find the sweet water
that sustains us in these bitter times.
And the dirt road welcomes you back,
remembers your footprints, and the prayers
you sent. The dust underneath your feet
exhales: Welcome Home.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

for Blless

They’re back in their spawn
Oh, damn. Here we go again. I’m trying
to level this fucking Kar.

What you doing? I’m ‘bout to eat soup
my wife made for me.
I need to level up my gun. It’s dumb

slow: this call of duty
of working all day, creating truth from beats,
and melodies from the vision of a future 

that will never come. Maybe I win today. Damn.
He is garbage. Finding peace
at being who you are gets tiring and over-

rated as most games are. Win.
Defeat. Coalition. Begin. You, being
the one that fell again. The one who got up.

This Road I Take

Whether it slithers like the satan-
like snake or lies flat like a sheet
on a freshly made bed, we must
travel either way. Peace, be
like a sword. Traveling mercy,
follow me wherever I may go.
Joy, don’t forget me at night
either; I need you then too.
Grief, my life partner, don’t
be as cruel in the end as you
were in the beginning. Whether
it be forked or diverging in a woods,
I know not. I must travel it,
I must come to know
each bog and bump on this road.
Though it is not smooth
the whole way, I made it.
And I had so many along the way
to give me cool drinks of water.

Sonya Diimmler and more to feature at 52 Windows – An Evening of Art by Mirci

52 Windows – An Evening of Art is the annual art auction and gala hosted by Columbia’s own Mental Illness Recovery Center, Inc. (Mirci). Jasper has been proud to share the wonderous work that both Mirci and the artists invited to participate in the gala have done, and we are excited to share with our readers the great artists featured this year. The gala is from 6 – 9 p.m. on May 9, 2024, at 701 Whaley. One featured artist in this year’s lineup is Sonya Diimmler.

Sonya Diimmler is known or her dramatic use of color in her contemporary landscapes and bold abstracts. The largely self taught artist was featured at Columbia Metropolitan Airport in 2021 and has had several shows at Rob Shaw Gallery in West Columbia and High Noon in Ballentine. Last October Sonya was the featured artist for USC’s School of Music’s edgy Southern Exposure concert. Currently a dynamic collection of Sonya’s abstracts is on display at the new Soulhaus Gallery in Columbia’s trendy Vista district.

Sonya’s Artist Statement: “Painting is –regardless of subject– an emotional and physical response to the world. My process is an alla prima pouring out of paint and silenced emotions. Their escape onto the canvas informs my style, my voice. Whether painting colorfully exaggerated landscapes or abstracts, it is the energy of mark making – the full body engagement of line and gesture, that makes art making so exciting, so satisfying, providing some sort of elusive existential balm, a fusion of self and the cosmos. For this reason, I prefer to paint large and loose without regard for the details of realism.” 

Interested in attending the 52 Windows Gala? Tickets are available through the Mirci website website. Early bird pricing for individual and couple tickets is enacted through April 17.

Review: NiA Theatre Company’s Production of Pass Over Hosts Powerful and Haunting Performances

Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over, inspired by Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, originally premiered in 2017. The production, turned into a film by Spike Lee, follows two black men in a liminal space, both outside of time and stuck within it. It is a play where everything and nothing happens, that both absorbs your projections onto it and drapes you in its meaning.

NiA Theatre Company’s production of Pass Over opened last weekend and aptly utilizes the space of the University of South Carolina’s black box at the Booker T. Washington building. Known as the Lab Theatre, the intimate space adds to the claustrophobia of the play. The set design, done by Cedric Umoja-Day, provides a backdrop that roots the characters to the unnamed city they’re stuck in. The newspaper headlines read as if from another time, but the scraps of cloth and scattered belongings create an image of an alley that could be around the corner today. Spatially, it becomes a tether that constantly pulls the actors back in, contributing to the lack of freedom physically and thematically.

The costume designing by Taylor Thompson (who also did props) amplifies this. Moses and Kitch’s looks are understated and allow their performances to shine. Kitch’s outfit appears fairly contemporary and could be from any year in the past few decades, while Moses’ could be from anytime in the past century. The outfit on Rob McCue’s Mister, as well as his picnic basket, emphasizes him as a man of a different time, which adds to the audience’s unease even when he is not speaking.

What most keenly emphasizes the tense nature of the play, however, is the tremendous acting by the small cast of three. McCue as Mister is able to serve nuance in his eerie toxic positivity that walks the line between genuine and malicious. His police officer (“Ossifer”) is everything it should be – awful and manipulative. Mario Haynes as Kitch is funny, innocent, naïve – and yet his coming of age is served in moments of quiet that steal your breath. He is fully in control of actions loud and soft. He is, in short, the heart of the play. The leading role here, Moses, played by Darion McCloud (who also served as the Assistant Director), is the standout of the production. He is simply magnetic, electric, and it is hard to take your eyes off him. His joy, his anger, his confidence, his fear, his power, his loss – it is all palpable. He is the driving force of the show. There is no doubt this is anyone but Moses: this is all he has ever been, all he will be, and this is enough, even when it isn’t.

All these decisions, nuanced and loud alike, are led by Lonetta Thompson as director; at the helm, she steers this ship expertly. Having her cast move across the space, sitting even in the alcoves and stairs adjacent to the audience pulls the audience into it, collapsing boundaries and expanding the liminality’s borders. We cannot refuse our participation, our culpability. The decision to keep the play farcical with constant movement and exaggerated actions helps contrast with the emotional aspects of the play, making the moments of shock and loss sit even heavier.

This is a story where archetype and individuality are always in contest, and crafting it takes time and care, which is seen throughout. There were a couple stumbles, though minor. The lighting (led by Teddy Palmer) was great, used evenly in the first half and used to focus on certain characters as well as denote the passage of time in the second. At times, though, especially in the second half, the lighting shifts in a way that could be paralleling the breakdown of the play’s structure, but does not have quite enough intentionality to be clear. The sound design (led by Madeline Lewis) was solid, but all sounds were at a similar level. The faraway gunshots and the on-scene gunshots sounded identical, and the speech was louder than the gunshots. These are very minute slips in a fantastic production that rarely takes the audience out of the story.

In the end, this is a play where simplicity is everything, and working to amplify what is there without complicating it is a fine line. This team walks this line expertly, an act that cannot be so tidy without a stellar stage manager, a role filled by Colleen Kelly. Pass Over has an excellent book, but this particular production steeps you in it, making these two black men’s entrapment haunt patrons long after they leave the theatre.

If Columbia patrons can see it this final weekend before it leaves, they should. Tickets are available online.

THE JASPER PROJECT PARTNERS WITH THE SC PHILHARMONIC ON THE ART OF SYMPHONY

“Eyes closed, I listened to the piece and was surprised by the immediate imagery I experienced …” - Eileen Blyth

The Jasper Project is delighted to announce a collaborative project with the South Carolina Philharmonic – THE ART OF SYMPHONY.  

When Chad Henderson, marketing director for the South Carolina Philharmonic, first posited the idea for the Art of Symphony project to Jasper, they were immediately intrigued. As Henderson explained, the SC Philharmonic had scheduled an upcoming concert on April 27, 2024, at the Koger Center for the Arts, around which the SC Phil hoped to engage with local visual artists. The concert would feature: Karen Tanaka’s Rose Absolute, Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op.33, and Shostakovich’s Symphony Number 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 and be conducted by Morihiko Nakahara featuring guest artist Sterling Elliott on cello. Henderson proposed that the music be divided into 14 singular sections and the Jasper Project invite and work with 14 of the Midlands’ finest visual artists, who would each respond to a unique piece of music artistically.

The newly created art will be projected on screens during the live performance of each of the 14 sections of music, as well as presented as an arts exhibition in Jasper’s Nook Gallery on the grand tier level of the Koger Center for the Arts.

The Art of Symphony Art Exhibition will open on Thursday evening, April 18, 2024, with a reception that is open to the public from 5:30 – 7 pm. The Art of Symphony Symphonic Convergence of Music & Visual Art will take place on Saturday, April 27th with the concert at 7:30 pm and a Meet the Artist Reception in the Nook Gallery at 6 pm. 

In keeping with the Jasper Project’s founding priority of cultivating multidisciplinary collaboration, Jasper will also publish a book of the featured art, entitled The Art of Symphony, which will be available for purchase at both events. 

The 14 visual artists participating in the project include Fred Townsend, Wilma King, Lori Isom- Starnes, Eileen Blyth, Stephen Chesley, Thomas Washington, K. Wayne Thornley, Alejandro Garcia-Lemos, Anthony Lewis, Lindsay Radford Wiggins, Michael Krajewski, Keith Tolen, Regina Langston, and Laura Garner Hine. Garcia-Lemos created an animated short in response to his designated section of music which will be shown on monitors in the Koger Center lobby before the concert, during intermission, and at The Art of Symphony Art Exhibition opening on April 18th. 

Eileen Blyth, who created Overheard Overhead in response to the first movement of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, said, “Eyes closed, I listened to the piece and was surprised by the immediate imagery I experienced. I was eye level before a roof top. Bird-like objects dipped and soared. Buildings stretched tall and then wide, up and down, back and forth. Objects moved in harmony. I saw the Maestro in my painting directing the symphony of shapes, lines, and color.”

Wilma King, who painted in response to the third movement of the Shostakovich said, “This project, much like a symphony itself, goes deep into the hearts, minds, talents, and expressions of myriad artists, culminating the various parts and facets into this paramount event.”

For more information visit JasperProject.org or SCPhilharmonic.com.

Jasper Partners with One Columbia & All Good Books to present 2024 ONE BOOK Project -- Book Announcement Celebration April 21st at Bierkeller

A few hints: the author lives, works, and writes in Columbia, the book’s theme centers around nature, environmental responsibility, and climate change, and there are characters in the book that transcend perceived racial, gender, sexual orientation, and even biological divisions to remind us that we are all citizens of this planet.

The public is invited to join the Jasper Project, One Columbia, and All Good Books, along with our host, Bierkeller Brewing Company on Sunday afternoon, April 21st from 3 – 5 pm for the announcement of our new book selection for Columbia’s 2024 ONE BOOK project!

As an Earth Day Eve event, the Bierkeller has invited representatives from local environmental organizations to be on hand to help us set the stage for the announcement of this year’s book selection.

A few hints: the author lives, works, and writes in Columbia, the book’s theme centers around nature, environmental responsibility, and climate change, and there are characters in the book that transcend perceived racial, gender, sexual orientation, and even biological divisions to remind us that we are all citizens of this planet.

Columbia city poet laureate Jennifer Bartell Boykin will read a poem dedicated to the city, and southeastern regional poetry event host Al Black has created a new poem inspired by the selected book. Dr. Melissa Stuckey, USC professor of History, will speak as will One Columbia’s Xavier Blake, All Good Book’s Jared Johnson, and the Jasper Project’s Cindi Boiter. There will be an interactive arts table for the children, environmental information booths, and various arts and crafts vendors will share their wares and talents with attendees. And, of course, beer, wine, and authentic German dishes will be available from the Bierkeller.

In addition to announcing the calendar of events for Columbia’s 2024 ONE BOOK  celebration, the pre-Earth Day event will also allow for the announcement of a Jasper Project – sponsored and ONE BOOK - inspired visual art, literary art, and singer-songwriter competition open to Midlands area artists with prizes and a 2024 ONE BOOK culminating party on September 22, 2024.

The ONE BOOK, One Community project began in the Seattle public library system in 1998 when Seattle librarians invited the community of greater Seattle to read and discuss the same book over the course of a summer. Columbia embraced the project first in 2011, and we enjoyed several years of exciting, thought-provoking programming centered around a singular book. One of our most exciting projects was in 2017 when the Columbia community read local author Carla Damron's novel The Stone Necklace, a detailed and ultimately uplifting story focusing on the power of community to combat poverty and homelessness and set in Columbia. Along with One Columbia for Arts and Culture and independent bookstore All Good Books, the Jasper Project has renewed the project focusing exclusively on books by SC authors.

While the title of the book remains embargoed until April 21st, media representatives may be made aware of the information upon request.

What will the selection for Columbia’s 2024 One Book be? Join us on April 21st from 3 – 5 pm at the Bierkeller, 600 Canal Street, Suite 1009 to find out!

For more information contact info@JasperProject.org

This week's Poet of the People is Kathleen Nalley!

This week's Poet of the People is Kathleen Nalley. I first met Kathleen at an event hosted by Kwami Dawes. Since then she has journeyed down to the Midlands several times to read at events I have hosted and I have had the privilege to read a time or two with her in the Upstate. She is a force of nature - a strong wind of sanity blowing from the foothills of South Carolina.

-Al Black

Kathleen Nalley is the author of the prose poetry collection, Gutterflower (winner of the Bryant-Lisembee Editor’s Prize), as well as the poetry chapbooks Nesting Doll (winner of the S.C. Poetry Initiative Prize) and American Sycamore. Her poetry and book reviews have appeared in New Flash Fiction Review, Slipstream, Limp Wrist, Rivet, Southern Humanities Review, The Bitter Southerner, StorySouth, and elsewhere, and her poetry has been anthologized in several collections. She received Jasper’s Saluda River Prize for Poetry in Fall Lines in 2016 and was heralded by the Richland Library as one of “10 SC Poets to Watch.” She’s participated in several community poetry projects in Columbia and Greenville, S.C.--most recently, in coordination with Greenville Poet Laureate Glenis Redmond for the Greenville Transit Poetry Project and for the Metropolitan Arts Council of Greenville’s Visual and Verse exhibit. Over the years, she has served as poetry editor of south85 literary journal, as an adjudicator for the Fine Arts Center of Greenville, as a judge for the SC State Library’s annual student poetry contest, and as a board member of the Emrys Foundation. She currently teaches literature and writing at Clemson University.

The Last Man on the Moon

Everyone knows Neil Armstrong: Staypuft moon walker, American posterboy, question to Jeopardy answer. The way Aldrin was all the buzz. Everyone loves firsts: first date, first love, first sex, first lunar walk. No one talks of lasts: marathon walker, buffalo corpse, minimum-wage worker, the sister not quick enough to the table, Eugene Cernan, who drove a lunar rover a mile, then knelt and traced his daughter’s initials—TDC— into dust. Cernan: the last man on the moon, the end of a legacy. The Omega. The Z. The period at the end of a sentence. The one whose name we don’t remember. The one who etched his daughter into the cosmos.

Black Dress

Although your mother cooked

pasta, lasagna, tiramisu,

you weren’t allowed to eat

more than three bites,

always a size two, to stay a size two,

always a halved grapefruit

on the counter, a bowl of peaches

rinsed of their syrup, fists

measuring perfect portions.

Boyfriends knew to deny you

milkshakes at the Starlite Drive-In,

where high school lovers swarmed

the parking lot, having only a few

hours before fathers would go looking.

You subsisted on Saltines

for weeks before senior prom;

the black dress your mother made

intentionally a size too small,

her tape measure lassoed

around your 21-inch waist.

Now, in the mirror, all you see

is what you never were,

fat and bulge and droop, the last

bobby-socked girl to be asked

to dance. Now, laugh lines

corner your mouth.

You don’t remember being

beautiful, the powder blue

eyeshadow, the brown scalloped

lace, your hi-rise and hospital job

in Charlotte, flirting with young plastic

surgeons who cut skin open,

lifted spleens to tables, painted

skin with scalpels.

Mid-life, you’ve got wonderfully

open carotids, jeans that fit,

secret cravings and scales

like gargoyles in every room

watching over the numbers,

those damn numbers that creep

into your sleep, wake you

in a panic, as if you’re walking

late to class naked, as if there’s

an algebra test you forgot to take.

Behind the louvers of your closet,

the perfect little black dress

in case someone dies.

 Judicial Hearing Ghazal

The girls school girls—were they were dressed to impress
the boys school boys at the weekend parties on your calendar?

Another beer down the hatch, another punch bowl to spike, another girl to access,
another notch on your belt, another to-do checked off of your calendar.

The boys lined up in trousers and ties, dressed for success—
a train of future executives and judges with no time on their calendars.

Punch-drunk, literally, those girls that you pressed
against you—funny, their names don’t appear on your calendar.

One says you forcibly groped, shifted her dress:
unmentionables unmentioned on your calendar.

Another says luckily she had emergency egress
before more harm could be done. She kept an emotional calendar.

The women who’ve come forward, their memories repressed
years, decades—did they keep calendars? (And how were they dressed?)

The parties, the drinks, the boys, their aggressions—details from all three coalesce,
details corroborated, at least, in part, by your calendar.

They’ve experienced PTSD for decades, traumatic duress
while you climbed the ladder, made appointments on your calendar.

A limited investigation, limited witnesses addressed
within a limited scope—the vote already fixed on the calendar.

Women know how it goes. #metoo. #whyIneverreported. We persist, nevertheless.
Take it on oath: November 5 circled in red,
                                                                          circled in red, circled in red
                                                                                                          on our calendars.

Life Sentence

In 2014, Oskar Gröning, 93-­‐year-­‐old former Nazi accountant, was charged with 300,000 counts of accessory to murder

For 60 years, you’ve sought absolution

in birds,

their wingtip and beak,

their freedom of flight.

You dumped 661 pounds

of seed in your yard,

shallow bowls overflowing,

just so you could pass the years

witnessing their formation: always a V,

nary a soldier not following suit.

Sixty years you’ve waited, contemplated

your garden, your lawn pocked

by all those small empty saucers.

What Man’s Hands Wrought

Long before there was fracking there was you unearthing the very earth digging trenches in soil spilling your chemical goo turning mud to muck leaving nutrients to dry fuck you nature heals herself in time even the most eroded can make anew grow pickups from seed littered the wind always knows what to do carry things away carry things where they will bloom wildflowers color the landscape permeate the air oh her honeysuckle hue she’s wild always wild always remade no matter the matter or intrusion or drilling or fracture believe her she will

Taking Root: The Artfields Collection at 701 CCA

Taking Root: The ArtFields Collection   

3/28/24   

6:00-8:00 

Taking Root: The ArtFields Collection is an exhibition presenting select pieces from the ArtFields Competition prize winners over the last 12 years. Figurative and representational work dominates the collection and the presentation shows the volume and expanse of southeastern talent. On view at 701 CCA March 28 through May 18th, this exhibition highlights the living, breathing proof of the power of art.  

Opening reception March 28, 6-8pm, in the Olympia Room, 2nd floor at 701 Whaley Street, Columbia, SC. 

*Cash Bar and light refreshments served. 

Featured Artist at Jasper's Sidewalk Gallery at the Meridian Building - Gretchen Evans Parker

Gretchen Evans Parker

Gretchen Evans Parker, CPSA/CPX - OTRL/ret., Is a retired pediatric/hippotherapist (horse) occupational therapist. She has embarked on a second career in fine art since retiring. The avant garde medium of colored pencil allows her to achieve great detail and realism in her paintings. In her wildest dreams, Gretchen could never imagine how well-received her art would be nor where it would take her.  

Her commissioned portraits hang in homes around the Midlands and North America. Her work has won many awards and honors including signature status in the Colored Pencil Society of America. She is also a juried member of the International Guild of Realism. Gretchen has written extensively on colored pencil artwork.

Her work has been featured in several publications locally, nationally, and internationally. In the evening, to relax from a day at the easel, Gretchen creates baskets from pine needles and found objects. They can take weeks/months to complete. Many become gifts or commissions.

- Kimber Carpenter

Josef Berliner’s “Black and Blues” Collection Now Featured in the Jasper Galleries’ Nook

Reception

Thursday March 21st

5:30 - 7 pm

The Nook at the Koger Center for the Arts

The Jasper Project is proud to welcome Josef Berliner as our new artist-in-residence in the Nook, our gallery location in the Koger Center for the Arts. The opening reception for his show coincides with March’s Third Thursday—the 21st—and goes from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.

Dedicated to making the world a more beautiful place “one canvas at a time,” Josef has held the drive to create art since he was a child. His artistic journey grew with every gifted sketchpad and drawing pencil, until he got to college where he double majored in Theatre and Studio Art.

Josef affixes the signature “Jobey” to his paintings; in Josef’s words, “Jobey is the more outgoing and confident alter ego. Behind the mask is a thoughtful, somewhat shy, and introspective artist.” His confidence as an artist shines through with each portrait in the exhibition, all focused on different Black women musicians who helped shape the blues and jazz scenes.

Josef has been recognized as a contributor to many charitable causes, always willing to give of himself as much as possible. He has been cited for his participation in organizations such as Bullets and Band-Aids, the USC Department of Dance Gala (in which he also serves as a board member), the Atlantic Institute, and was most recently honored as a featured artist for the Artists for Africa winter event.

He works predominantly in oil on canvas, with a keen eye for detail and the innate ability to look far deeper than the mere surface, all the while seeking for a level of perfection that, while perhaps unattainable, is indeed his ultimate and far-reaching goal.

REVIEW: Trustus Theatre's Blues for an Alabama Sky

If there was ever a question whether or not Katrina Garvin is the first lady of Columbia theatre, that question is put to rest in perpetuity with her performance in the role of Angel in Pearl Cleage’s 1995 play, Blues for An Alabama Sky, which opened on March 15th at Trustus Theatre.

Having seen Garvin perform for years now, we knew to expect excellent work from this multi-talented actor, but this particular part allows Garvin the latitude to flex all her chops, from the exuberant and sometimes drunken highs, to the still wistful, but resigned lows. While Blues for the Alabama Sky is not a musical, we do get a nice sampling of Garvin’s considerable vocal talent, which punches up the storyline, making the character of Angel, an out of work singer, even more authentic.

Blues for an Alabama Sky is set in 1930, during the waning days of the Harlem Renaissance, a period of time well after the Great Migration and World War I, but smack in the middle of the Great Depression when the multitudes of Black families and artists who had fled from the South to Harlem were feeling the pressure of unemployment, scarcity, and cultural exploitation by wealthy whites. The play takes place after Garvin’s Angel has just been fired from the famous Cotton Club, Harlem’s pantheon of racial exploitation where Black performing artists like Duke Ellington and Billie Holliday were predominantly featured, but Black audiences were not allowed to enjoy their shows.

As a drunken and hilarious Angel is escorted home by her friend and on-again off-again roommate, Guy, flawlessly played by Lamont Gleaton, a stranger encounters the two and offers to assist Guy in getting Angel safely home. Guy is a gay costume designer in Harlem, but he dreams of traveling to Paris to design wardrobe for the famous ex-pat entertainer, Josephine Baker. The stranger is Leland, also exceptionally well-played by Equity actor, Samuel James Pygatt, who is a conservative Alabama carpenter visiting Harlem after the death of his wife and baby in childbirth. Leland lingers a bit as Guy and Angel go upstairs to Guy’s apartment where next door neighbor and social worker, Delia, played by Courtney Sims helps Guy settle Angel down. Delia is an employee of famed birth control activist Margaret Sanger and hopes to help Sanger establish a family planning clinic in Harlem. The next day we also meet Sam, played by William Paul Brown, who is an obstetric physician at a Harlem hospital with a complicated moral compass and a penchant for partying with his friends.

Over the course of the next eight stage weeks we see Angel faced with a number of choices about who controls her future; herself, or the pre-designed culture in which she lives that stacks the deck against a Black woman in a white man’s world. In fact, every character in the play is faced with a similar choice to one degree or another. Will Guy continue to be hopeful of a better future? Will Leland be controlled by his conservative religious roots? Will Delia continue to work for reproductive freedom despite a senseless backlash of violence and destruction? And will Sam compromise his personal values for a friend?

Blues for an Alabama Sky is a study in conflict, represented by the straightforward resignation of the blues versus the progressive complexity of jazz. Traditionalism versus progressivism. Forbearance versus optimism. Guy and Delia versus Leland. And Angel, who vacillates between all positions but must decide her own fate, whether she wants to or not, with Sam left to suffer the consequences of his friend’s not-always-steady decisions.

Blues for an Alabama Sky is also a study in history with notable icons of Black history surfacing in the dialogue and lending even more authenticity to the fictionalized story. In addition to Guy’s preoccupation with Josephine Baker, the friends also attend a party thrown by artist Bruce Nugent in honor of writer Langston Hughes. Margaret Sanger was the founder of Planned Parenthood. Booker T. Washington was the founder of the Tuskegee Institute (University) where Sam went to school. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr. was the founder of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, the largest Protestant Church in the US at the time and the church that Delia attends, and his son, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. who began preaching at his father’s church in 1937 before becoming a member of Congress and advocate for Black voting rights, is teased as her potential suitor.

Opening Night for Blues for an Alabama Sky demonstrated an exceptionally solid cast, well-coached by veteran director Terrance Henderson. The use of alternative entrances to the stage brought the audience into the action from the beginning when Garvey’s Angel caused an appropriate but humorous stir as she made her way, with some intentional effort, to her place. And I’m just going to say it. Katrina Garvey looked beautiful in that black evening dress with bright red lipstick. As my viewing companion said, “She was adorable!”

Kudos to whoever did hair and makeup, as well as to costume designer Tashera Pravato, who dressed Garvin chicly, Sims orthodoxly per Delia’s character, Gleaton snappily with just the right amount of panache, Brown professionally but with a fabulous broad brimmed hat, and Pygatt like the country man come to Harlem that his character was.

Scenic and property design was handled by Ashley Jensen and G. Scott Wild, respectively, who created a textured and cozy period set that kept the audience exploring the details through the inordinately long pauses between acts. Lighting was designed by Mark Hurst and board operation was by William Kirven, with Trinessa Kirby assisting Henderson in direction, and stage management courtesy of Chastity Shell and Elizabeth Houck.

As can happen with live theatre, opening night suffered just a couple of flubs that were evident to the audience; an unavoidable lighting board crash, leading to one of those long pauses mentioned above, and a precocious doorknob. Making the best of the unfortunate doorknob situation, Lamont Gleaton improvised a solution, and he did so with a flourish, inspiring the audience to applaud the actor for both his ingenuity and his style!

This writer fell in love with all the characters with the exception of Pygatt’s Leland, whose job was not to make us love him. Henderson and his cast made us identify with the characters and care about them. The play, though almost 30 years old and set in 1930, holds up disappointingly well as American society still grapples with a woman’s right to control her own body, queerness, and racial equity. Some things are certainly better, but they are far from fixed!

Complementing the play in the Trustus lobby is an art exhibition by Columbia-based visual artist Thomas Washington. Washington’s mesmerizing art is also a study in contrast as it is both brooding but magical, dark but hopeful. And his price points for this show are more affordable than they should be. To see more of Washington’s work, visit his Jasper-sponsored exhibition, Love Quest, at the 701 Whaley Community Hallway Gallery or at Jasper’s Big Tiny Gallery at Richland Library through April 19th. Collect this artist’s work while you can afford it!

Blues for an Alabama Sky runs through March 30th on the Thigpen Main Stage at Trustus Theatre. For tickets, go to the Trustus website.

This Week's Featured Poet of the People with Al Black is Stephen Wing

This week's Poet of the People is Stephen Wing. In the environmental poetry scene, Stephen Wing is a force to reckoned with. I spent three days at the Off the Grid Festival outside Spartanburg, SC with him last Autumn and he has featured twice for events I organized in the Midlands area. He is authentic and writes from his strong belief in the sanctity of nature. We need more Stephen Wings. 

-       Al Black

Stephen Wing discovered the wilderness in the summer after ninth grade, and suddenly the world made sense. A deep connection to wild nature has been his spiritual center ever since. His work as a poet ranges from the personal to the pastoral to the fiercely political. Once each season he hosts the “EarthPoetry” workshop, exploring metro Atlanta's many protected greenspaces and nature preserves. His new book Wild Atlanta combines poems from 23 of these locations with stunning color photos by Luz Wright. He is the author of three previous books of poems and the Earth Poetry chapbook series. Visit him at StephenWing.com.

Lightning’s Compass

With every flash and flicker of the sky,
I glimpse another few steps
of the trail back to my tent,
this slow pilgrimage between the trees
without a flashlight—
fork to the left, jog to the right,
slippery downgrade, low-hanging branch—
like my life sometimes,
the chain of epiphanies lighting up my path
and the pitch-dark
between

Underfoot

Every time I walk down
into the hollow
through the winter woods
or up the mountain again,
I stop right here.
Standing on the packed earth
of an old logging road
where the creek slips quietly
through its rusty culvert
underfoot,
I’m not so much listening as feeling
a kind of tickling caress
through the soles of my shoes
and I recognize
a crossing of paths, a choice,
a way back
if I could only turn
and follow.

Ever Since Evolution              
     
              for Dawn Aura

Of all that’s ever
begun with an orgasm,
I think I like you
best:

Ever since the Big
Bang, ever since Genesis,
ever since the Milky Way gave birth
to a green-blue baby
called Earth—

All down the generations
of amorous plankton,
the dynasties of protozoa,
whole species that married and merged
into new species,
brewing up an atmosphere of
hospitable chemicals . . .

Down the golden ages
in the Garden, whole
civilizations of bacteria
that slowly grew into specialized
cells of one another,
building over millennia
the confederation of organs . . .

Ever since Evolution
conceived a tribe of naked mammals
begotten by the lineage
of Chimpanzee, I think
of all the protoplasm in the diaspora
of Creation, you
are my favorite animal

Grandmother’s Seeds

                  for Anna Maude, my grandmother

She’s out in her garden,
bending down to touch the soil.
She covers each seed as she
must have tucked me into bed, long
ago.  Her old hoe is worn
to a shining crescent, sifting
earth into dark flour.

She never knew the shelves
in her bathroom were lined with
the signs of the zodiac.
I never heard her mention the moon.
She sprinkled poison like
holy water and thanked the Lord
for filling her deep-freeze.

She sits at the lamp
over her morning devotions.
Outside in the dimness
the first seed stirs in the ground.
She folds her glasses, closes
her book on its bookmark and goes out
to turn on the hose.

The Naked Scientist

I am the naked scientist
singing as I set my specimens free
Joyfully I observe the positions of things
and nudge them off their courses,
gauge their direction and budge them
from their places

The green things around me lap my exhalations,
my fresh odors startle the ancient
solution of gases, I let my hand pass experimentally
down the mossy flank of a boulder
purring in the sun

I ache sometimes at sunrise
for the waking of the world to what it knows
Each day I gather data, and grieve
for the grieving of one or two or eleven people
I hadn’t counted before

And I look over my notes at sunset
comforted by this work of the Study of Woe,
calculating my Theory of Revelation
in the face of entropy and decay

I live to know this world as my grandmother
knew her Bible, but best of all
I love the pilgrimage
of the search—

(Shall I tell you my discovery?
It is all alive.
And the snowflakes are not
all one sex.)

Asphalt Nights

Looking back now, I often
regret that night in my delinquent youth
when I impulsively
borrowed a shovel and buried
my memories of childhood down by the creek
under a full moon.
How was I to know the entire floodplain
would be paved for parking
when they built the new mall?
Night after night now I dream I’m a lost child
roaming mile after mile
of fresh black asphalt under the floodlights
between the slumbering cars,
kicking my shadow ahead with every step,
stopping to listen
at every storm drain for the faint
trickle or drip of some other world
to wake up in.

Man Breathing Life into Metal
(Note italics at end)

The saxophonist wets his lips
and caresses his mouthpiece

sucks it in and lets it escape
and then draws it back

into himself so its dark twisting
entrails join with his own

clamps the dormant light of that
gleaming muscle in his

fingertips and forces through its
thin lips from his own

the infinite compression of a breath:
the golden bell sings out

with the panic of inarticulate matter
waking to the agony it is

to be an animal, the joy it is
to move and speak and sing

“Now when I get through playing it,
it going to be just as warm as my body . . .”

Moth

I bit my fingernails too short
waiting for this bus, I stood
too close to the road too long, peering
through the haze of engine fumes—

Everyone around me pretends not to know.
So naturally by now they‘ve all
long since forgotten.
No one on this bus remembers
poetry overhead among the ads:  today
hundreds of cockroach silhouettes,
the extermination campaign . . .

A dead moth
on the stairs in the train station knows:
startled black and red and yellow eyes
on shattered wings
stare past me through the concrete overhang,
and suddenly I see
right through the step I’m about to take—

Its furry underbody
leaves a yellow pollen on my fingertips.
Ridiculous
to carry the fallen creature home.
Ridiculous to choose one place
out of all the galaxies
to go.

Distant Singing

Listen:
somewhere off in the distance,
a motor.
It too has a song.
It’s the song of pushing eagerly forward,
heedless of how,
careless of where,
regardless of why,
intoxicated
with the singleminded joy
of burning its little tank of fuel,
never mind
where the fuel came from
or where that little plume of smoke
might go.

Hurtling Through Darkness

Hurtling
between the silver ribbons
uncurling eternally
out through the darkness,
steering by a chain of diamonds
strung through space,

I start again every time
I stray from my lane and they
bump under my tires, the reflecting
eyes of all the animals
who have died for this highway—

Focusing my own wild eyes
into the rainstorm,
the floodlights of billboards,
the pulse of blue lightning
at the power plant,

leaning back in the cushioned engine
of my will
with the road’s vibration
humming in my vitals,
gripping the steering wheel as tight as my life,

I ride the thirsty beast
of my momentum, obedient to the signs,
barely in control,
hurtling through the darkness of the eons
of extinction

OVERDUE: CURATED FOR THE CREATIVE SET FOR FRIDAY, MARCH 15th - in connection with The Jasper Project's BIG TINY GALLERY featuring 20+ Jasper Artists!

Join Richland Library for This FREE, After-Hours Program

WHAT: Overdue

WHEN: March 15 | 7-11 p.m.

WHERE: Richland Library Main(1431 Assembly St., 29201)

WHO: Adults, ages 18 & olderExperience a night of creativity and entertainment at Richland Library's Overdue: Curated for the Creative event on Friday, March 15, from 7 - 11 p.m. at Richland Library Main (1431 Assembly St., 29201). Join Richland Library after hours for interactive activities like block printed stickers, zine making with Eden Prime, and more! Be entertained with live music performances by Dear Blanca, Niecy Blues, and Katera. Enjoy delicious food from Dae's Delicious Dogs and drinks from the cash bar by Transmission Arcade. This free event, open to those ages 18 and up, promises an evening of artistic exploration and community engagement.

Attendees of Overdue will have the first opportunity to view Richland Library's newest exhibit, Jasper Presents: A Big Tiny Gallery. The Big Tiny Gallery is a collection of small artworks created by a collection of local artists previously showcased in The Jasper Project’s online exhibition series. Over the years, Jasper's Tiny Gallery series has allowed artists to show a selection of smaller pieces offered at affordable prices. The exhibit will be on view in the gallery from March 15 - April 26th. A closing reception for the gallery is scheduled for April 19, 2024.

A complete list of activities, musicians and partners is available online.

This event is sponsored in part by the Richland Library Friends and Foundation.

For questions, please contact Tacara Young at 803-351-5616 or tyoung@richlandlibrary.com.

South Carolina State Museum Presents SC Artist Homecoming June 22, 2024

SAVE THE DATE!

JUNE 22, 2024

The South Carolina State Museum invites you to an Artist Homecoming for SC visual artists and arts supporters, honoring iconic living artists and fostering new connections in the arts community. This day-long program will include panel discussions, behind-the-scenes tours and time to explore the museum, followed by a reception.

Registration is free and will open on April 22nd.

REVIEW: Workshop Theatre's CATS

CATS … finds success with a cast that exhibits unflinching commitment to the task at hand (and they seem to be having a rather good time while they’re doing it).

Workshop Theatre of South Carolina opened their production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS last weekend, starting a three-week run of this show which ran for 18 years on Broadway. As the resident community theatre troupe at Columbia College’s Cottingham Theatre, the Workshop presentation is a special collaboration between Workshop and the Columbia College Dance Education and Dance Studies program - creating a unique opportunity for community actors and dance students to work together. 

Based on T.S. Eliots Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Webber’s CATS has been performed for over 40 years and had a feature film adaptation in 2019. For those reasons, we’ll spare you a synopsis and move right along.  

CATS, under the direction of Julian Deleon, finds success with a cast that exhibits unflinching commitment to the task at hand (and they seem to be having a rather good time while they’re doing it). This ensemble, which consists of over 35 performers, hits their marks, are constantly engaged in catlike activities, and ultimately offers an energetic performance that feels dutifully rehearsed.  

Actors Bobby L. Rogers (Munkustrap), Katherine Brown (Bombalurina), Carly Siegel (Demeter) and Blythe Long (Jellylorum) hold the audiences’ hands (read: paws) throughout the production as their characters are charged with introducing us to many of the characters or informing the viewers about the history and traditions of the Jellicle Cats. All four performers have truly lovely voices that are fitting for Webber’s vocal score, and they all lead the proceedings with poise and control that makes the audience feel welcome to their secret society.  

Lisa Baker, as Grizabella, does an admirable job in this production. Baker’s performance of “Memory” satisfies fans of the song due to her powerful vocals and purr-fect tone (sorry, we had to) that throws comforting nods to the Betty Buckley performance we’ve heard countless times over the last four decades.  

The performances of Nathan Jackson (Mungojerrie) and Jessica Roth (Rum Tum Tugger) are also winning moments for this production. Jackson’s Mungojerrie feels incredibly familiar to folks who have experienced the original production of this piece. He’s fun, mischievous, and quite comfortable with his dance duties. Roth’s Rum Tum Tugger deviates from the usual characterization that mixes Tom Jones with glam rockers of the 80s and provides audiences with a Janis Joplin-esque rock-n-roller that is delightful when she takes the show over.  

Without a doubt, Choreographer Erin Bailey was responsible for a larger part of the production than is usual with most musical theatre works. Bailey has created a lot of movement for the cast that allows the trained dancers to wow us when they take the spotlight, and for the “movers” in the cast to look their best throughout most of the production. While some moments aren’t as successful as others, there is a lot of varied movement throughout the production and your eyes don’t get tired seeing a large cast execute it.  

To that end, Emily Jordan (Victoria on March 9th), Katherine Brown (Bombalurina) and Jack Thompson (Mistoffilees) gave us professional performances in regard to dance in the production. They lend Bailey’s work the talent that it desires, and they give longtime CATS fans a glimpse into the choreographic focus with which the show originated.  

Music Director Taylor Dively, in his first time navigating the music for a full-length musical, shows promise in that the vocals of CATS are rather good - especially when regarding the soloists. However, the sound design makes the proceedings uncomfortable at times as the sopranos are too high in the mix - which can make certain moments feel like a caterwaul rather than the good blend coming from stage. On March 9, the band was unfortunately not meeting the cast’s performance level, as the show began with wrong notes on the keyboards, destroying the iconic opening melody. These sorts of accidents occurred often throughout the evening, leaving us hoping that the musicians will realize that they are being paid to be there, and should therefore be just as prepared as the cast who is donating their talent. 

Ultimately, despite the efforts of the cast, this production suffers from a design concept that simply does not work. The show has been promoted as “not your mother’s CATS” - and this is truthful advertising. Our mother’s CATS had humans in fully committed feline-wear, and the illusion worked rather well to make such a bizarre concept a Broadway and West End hit. Workshop’s cats have painted noses with headbands or hats that have “cat ears” attached. Our mother’s CATS had fun set pieces that allowed the cast to create a train out of oversized junk pieces laying around the set along with other moments of inventive whimsy. Workshop’s cats had bare bones structures with some castored scaffolding that left us thinking we were watching CATS on a scaled down set of RENT. The show asks for many moments of reveal, surprise, inventiveness and magic that, in this production, were simply absent. We were not tricked into thinking Macavity was in disguise as Old Deuteronomy. We did not believe we had witnessed magic when Mistoffelees motioned for the cast to wheel Old Deuteronomy back on stage when he’s supposed to be miraculously summoned. The same lack-of-illusion applies when Grizabella is wheeled off stage left as she finally ascends to the Heaviside Layer. Where’s the thrilling sleight of hand? The possibility of that felt lost in the first 30 seconds when a crew member, portraying a human in the wrong alley, walked across the stage making it clear the felines were the same scale as he.  

Cast member Harrison Ayer’s bio briefly and aptly reads that Ayer “is a human, acting like a cat dressed like a human.” That’s pretty much what you get with this directorial concept. If it was a big idea that didn’t come to fruition due to the immensity of the project, then it can be forgiven. However, if this production meets the vision of those who created it - then perhaps this CATS shouldn't have been let out of the bag. Doing “different” is welcome, but only when there’s a relatable or inventive perspective that exposes something newly relevant or unexpected about a cherished work.

We always invite patrons to challenge our reactions by taking the time to see the work themselves. Art is entirely subjective, and you may have a very different experience. If you want to see a fully committed cast giving you undeniable energy in tandem with some rather talented dancers that are performing one of the theatre industry’s most successful works, then you should book your tickets to see Workshops’s production of CATS. The show runs through March 23rd at Cottingham Theatre on the campus of Columbia College. You may buy tickets at www.workshoptheatreofsc.com. Also, don’t forget that the theatre is taking donations for animal shelters, so be sure to bring some treats, litter, or toys with you.

Congratulations to Poetry Out Loud Winner JESSIE LEITZEL!

JESSIE LEITZEL

The Jasper Project congratulates Jessie Leitzel on winning first place in the South Carolina Poetry Out Loud State Finals, held Saturday, March 9th at Richland Library. Leitzel was one of six finalists who competed in the finals for the national recitation competition and will go on to compete in the final competition in Washington DC later this spring.

“Leitzel was composed, confident, and they presented themself as a bright and progressive representative of South Carolina,” says the Jasper Project executive director Cindi Boiter who, along with Jasper Project board of directors member, Al Black, Marilyn Matheus, and Lester Boykin, adjudicated the event. Ray McManus was the host of the event, and Paul Kaufmann was the accuracy judge. Shannon Ivey was the performance coach and Eric Bultman served as recitation coach.

Leitzel is a nonfiction writer and poet studying creative writing at Charleston County School of the Arts in North Charleston. They are the co-founding editor of the literary magazine, Trace Fossils Review, a 2024 Presidential Scholar in the Arts nominee, a gold medalist of the Scholastic Writing Awards, and a YoungArts Award winner with distinction in nonfiction.

Winning second place was Abhirami Nalachandran from Calvary Christina School in Myrtle Beach and Catherine Wooten of Westgate Christian School was awarded the third place prize.

Other finalists included Eve Decker of Spartanburg Day School, Erin Maguire of Socastee High School, and Gemma Williams of Ashley Hall in Charleston.

Congratulations to all the finalists, as well as to the Columbia SC arts community for coming out to support your literary artists!

Columbia Children’s Theatre Welcomes Debra Leopard

From our friends at Columbia Children’s Theatre —

Columbia Children’s Theatre (CCT), the Midlands’ only professional theatre specifically for families and young audiences, is thrilled to announce the addition of theatre veteran Debra Leopard to its artistic staff. 

Debra has been involved in Theatre Arts since she was 11 years old. She received her BFA with an Acting Specialty and her MA with a Directing Specialty from the University of South Carolina. She has been teaching, acting and directing in the Midlands since the early 1980s. Her directing experience includes shows at USC, Workshop Theatre, Lander College, Chapin Theatre Company, and Village Square Theatre. She has directed over 100 shows, most recently Young Frankenstein and The Addams Family. 

Debra also has an extensive acting resume including lead roles in shows such as As You Like It, The Odd Couple: Female Edition, The Wizard of Oz, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Always Patsy Cline, Second Samuel, CLUE, and many more. She most recently served as the Artistic and Education Director at Village Square Theatre in Lexington. Her teaching experience includes USC, Workshop Theatre, ICRC, Lander College, Newberry College, Millie Lewis of Columbia, and DeAbreau  modeling Agency. Debra has taught acting, directing, voice and diction, audition techniques, dialects, improv and acting for the camera across the state. She has also collaborated with actors with special needs in a number of programs including the award-winning Carolina Actors with Special Talents. 

Deb joins CCT as Artistic Associate and will helm this summer’s production of Seussical. “Debra and I went to college and graduate school together,” says CCT Artistic Director Jerry Stevenson, “and we finally get to work together!” Deb will also be directing for CCT’s Mainstage, The Peanut Butter and Jelly Players and our Entr’acte Ensemble. “I am thrilled to be working with the 2022 South Carolina Theatre of Distinction,” says Leopard, “not to mention that their new location is just minutes from my house in West Columbia.” 

Stay tuned for info regarding our summer show and Deb’s Audition Workshop!

About CCT

Columbia Children’s Theatre is a professional resident not-for-profit theatre dedicated to providing quality live theatre experiences for families and young audiences and is supported in part by the City of West Columbia and the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

It's Oscars Weekend -- Columbia Creatives & Film Lovers Pick Their Faves from This Year and Others by Wade Sellers

As the cinematic award season concludes Sunday evening with the Academy Awards, Jasper asked creators and film lovers around Columbia about their most memorable movie viewing experience of 2023. Some loved new film offerings from the year. Others re-visited older classics or childhood favorites and saw them with a new point of view. Some anticipated a film only to be disappointed. Our list of Columbia creators and film lovers offered a diverse list of favorites, and we invite you, if you haven’t already, to view some of their favorites when you can.

Kwasi Brown - Founder, Black Nerd Mafia  

My favorite movie this year was Thanksgiving. Horror is my fav genre, which typically has a lot of disposable content. This movie, while set in modern times felt like a throwback slasher. It also explores themes of American consumerism and how out of hand it has gotten. Great kills, light humor, and an interesting compelling story. Eli Roth can be hit or miss but I’ve been waiting for this movie since the fake trailer appear in Tarantino's grindhouse forever ago and he didn't disappoint.

Marty Fort - Musician & Owner, Columbia Arts Academy, Irmo School of Music, Lexington Arts Academy

I watched The Goonies with my daughter. As far as what was new about The Goonies was how intense parts of it were. Sloth in hand cuffs. The mobsters. And the visuals, Oregon, the music, etc.

Laura Kissel - Director, School of Visual Art and Design, University of South Carolina

I loved Barbie! It captures the powerful, fun, and imaginative play a lot of young girls have when they are full of agency and fearless. Great, nostalgic set design for Barbieland, catchy song and dance sequences, and a terrific critique of the patriarchy. And I had no idea there was once a video of Barbie with a camera in her body. I want one! 

Merritt McNeely - CEO, Flock and Rally 

Nimona was #1. And magically, was also created by a local. But we didn't watch it the first time through that lens. For me, I cried b/c I realized the struggle that Nimona was sharing with the world - about having to be someone else until you finally just have to be you, and how hard that can be. I felt like it was the exact message my child needed to hear - whether he understood that or not. I don't know why my son cried during Nimona, he can't quite explain his feelings yet, but something moved him to tears as well. 

Tracie Broom - Co-Founding Partner, Flock and Rally 

I absolutely loved Poor Things. I found it incredibly funny and creative, and it shows a version of what women *might* want to question and explore if we weren't conditioned from a very young age to see ourselves, and our usefulness, in a limited way. Plus, what a treat for a Yorgos Lanthimos movie to wrap up on a high note!

Ed Madden - Poet

The Quiet Girl. Gorgeous. Irish film, part in Irish language. Based on novella Foster by Claire Keegan. Heartbreakingly beautiful. Things unsaid. Gestures. What is family. Who is a parent. A slow revelation, the ambiguity of the ending. The cast—Carrie Crowley was so amazing, and Catherine Clinch.

Cedric Umoja - Artist

Surrounded. I found the storytelling, cinematography, and acting to be excellent. It was a great way to expand upon the western genre by making its hero a Black woman who had served as a Buffalo soldier before becoming a traveler. She was everything we, as the audience, hoped she would be. 

Sumner Bender - Executive Director, Nickelodeon Theater 

I really enjoyed AIR, Barbie, Past Lives, and Oppenheimer. I think Oppenheimer is my favorite though. It's almost cliche because it is so critically acclaimed. I didn't see it when it first came out, but I watched it later and 10 minutes in I realized why it was so hyped up, because it is incredible! I have no qualms about loving popular movies!

Jay Matheson - Musician, Owner The Jam Room 

Biggest disappointment was Leave the World Behind. Looking through the 2023 film list the only one that stands out is Jules. It was quite offbeat and dealt with quite a few subjects in a unique way. Aging being a theme. Brian and Charles had to be the standout film that I ran across. Very funny and quite absurd. Not for everyone but I thought it was great. I don't keep notes so I'm sure I've forgotten a few. It was a busy year for me, so I did not watch as many films as usual.

Keith Tolen - Artist 

I found myself watching a film I know I have seen almost a hundred times. It’s Cool Runnings. I can’t get enough of it. I don’t know why. It has the beating the odds moments and yet how to handle defeat. I also love the flavor of the film. After all you are in Jamaica. What could be better. Solid acting and my go to film when I need to recharge.

Amy Brower - Actor, Artist, & Owner, Brower Casting 

2024 gave us....Barbie. The first act of the film can only be described as a cotton candy fever dream. (Which my inner 5-year-old unapologetically enjoyed) As someone familiar with (and deeply appreciative of) Greta [Gerwig]'s work, I was bracing myself for the gut punch of unflinching reality in there somewhere. And sure enough there it was, sandwiched palpably between hysterical one liners and over-the-top costume changes. Overall, it was a mixed bittersweet bag (as is womanhood) that succeeds in offering a fresh take on gender equality and self-love amidst toxic culture patterns in society and yes, in ourselves. As much as I look forward to sharing Barbie with my daughters in a few years, I feel no need to wake them from their cotton candy dreams of childhood just yet.  

Chad Henderson - Theatre Director & Marketing Director, South Carolina Philharmonic 

My favorite film that I watched last year was Good Vibrations, a 2013 music flick based on the life of Terri Hooley - a record-store owner instrumental in developing Belfast’s punk rock scene. I heard about Hooley while watching a PBS documentary about Northern Ireland and The Troubles, then I saw there was a movie about him. Saw the movie (loved it) and read Hooley’s autobiography. Then, by chance, when I was in NYC last summer the musical adaptation of the film was playing at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan. So I’m a bit of a Hooligan at this point. 

Debi Schadel - Co-Founding Partner, Flock and Rally

Two of my favorites were Women Talking and Nimona. Women Talking was a bold movie with little action which was so refreshing. Nimona made me so proud to see a Columbia native make it and it goes to show you that the big budgets aren't always the best and it's always about the story.

Cindi Boiter – Founder & Executive Director, The Jasper Project

A unique film that  may not be on everyone’s radar was 2020’s Kajillionaire. I was drawn to it because it was written and directed by Miranda July (You and Me and Everyone We Know, 2005) and starred some of my favorites - Richard Jenkins, Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger, and Gina Rodriguez, with a smaller part played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph (nominated for Holdovers this year.) I loved it because it was quirky, and Wood’s character was a huge departure for her. But more so, I loved its treatment of parenting, and the holes parents can leave in the emotional makeup of their children. In a powerful scene, Jenkins and Winger demonstrate how parenting can be a performance more than a mission. Heartbreaking but, in the end, satisfying.

— Wade Sellers

MONIFA LEMONS is this week's Featured Poet

This week's Poet of the People is Monifa Lemons.  Before there were titles for poets there was Monifa - one name, no title, was enough.  She personifies what it means to be a poet: gracious, mentoring, talented, and selfless. To know Monifa is to experience poetry in and of the Kakalak. I am honored to call her friend.

Monifa Lemons, also recognized as SelahthePoet, began her poetic journey in Columbia, SC in the late 90s, both as a Spoken Word Artist and as a host at various venues. Her work can be found in various publications. She is currently an elementary school teacher, and a facilitator with USC Trio Upward Bound. Her focus is on creative writing and intentional creation with children and community. She is also following her entrepreneurial dreams as Coffee Roaster and Co-Owner at Haiku Coffee 575, a company she opened in Fall 2020 along with her four daughters and has returned to her original art of acting, playing the principal role of Mama in the short film Crooked Trees Gon' Give Me Wings, Directed by Cara Lawson and Produced by Hillman Grad Productions.

After Dogon Krigga

Bouncing lateral
On wind cutting our eyes
At revelations

B Boys spinning like
Dreidels on pointe listening
To scratched petals bloom

No blinking allowed
Instead, a creation stare

Calloused eyes don’t crack   

Letter from my Grandmother 

Monisa, 

it’s still da same. Dem chickens still gotta be fed, even pass dat rooster. You still gotta wake earlier when youra mothuh. You still gotta find dem chaps a home. You still gotta find a job. a real one. You still gotta stir grits, even if you raisin’ chillen that don’t want em. You still gotta do all of it. Ain’t nobody gon’ cayit forya. You still need a car. You shouldn’t be afraida da walk. You still gotta carry da wood in e’en when there ain’t no stove. You gotta wash. He’s still your uncle an’der was nothin’ we could do. You still gotta learn’na sat here an’ stay. Here. Wit’ us. You know howta make dat nana puddin’? Den you gotta teach’em. Still.   

Moon Cycle

I pinch tissue between first second and thumb
Wrap the roll like gauze over and over. Hand

Slide off palm. Fold in half. Reach between legs. Shove cover.
The hole He hallowed. Seeping. Cursed.

With standing we adjust. Loose.
Plugged crazy. Gathered insane. Stuffed.
Granules of sugar in my spoon. Stirred.
Echoes muffled. Hope absorbed. Picked by cotton.
I now walk in the room.

Water Beckons

Water beckons. Step by step I fill
myself. Up my legs. Down my hands.
slap. splash and play.
Wash me
River. Wash me whole.
Twirl my spirit til I know knot.
Cleanse me. Send a smile down.
Stream it tickling past the legs of another.
Call them out
to wade. Join us…
within the wade.

You Look good

You look good. You look good. Yeah good.

You look good. What are you doing now?

What are you doing? You look good.

You look good. What have you been doing?

What.

What have you not been doing? What were you not doing?

When did you care? When did you care about looking good?

When you do that, you look good.

Look.

Look, you are good. You are good. When did you start to care.

When did you start to care about looking? You look like you care.

About looking good, you look like you care.

You care now. We see that. We can see that you now care about

your look.

See. Look. at What. Care.

Care.

You care now. You now care. Care has been taken in your look.

Now.

What could you be doing? What have you done?

You care. We'll care now. To look at you.

We care to look at you. You look good.

Now.

Al Black Celebrates 1000th Poetry Event March 13th at Cool Beans

At the Jasper Project, we’re excited to share the news of a celebration of one of our own, Al Black, SC’s poetry guru!

Fueled by a labor of love to share and encourage the creation of poetry among his friends and neighbors writ large, for years, Al Black has been staging poetry events ranging from readings to open mic nights to song writers’ circles, and more. Next Wednesday, March 13th will be Al’s 100th poetry event. We’re happy to join the SC Poetry Society in congratulating Al and celebrating this momentous occasion at t pm at Cool Beans coffee in Columbia, SC.

The event is open and free to the public.

Congratulations, Al!

Jasper Announces the Winning Playwright for the 2024 Play Right Series

The Jasper Project is excited to announce that Chad Henderson’s play Let it Grow, has been selected as the winning play in the 2024 Play Right Series competition. Henderson’s play was unanimously chosen from 14 submissions by a committee of four theatre artists including Dewey Scott-Wiley, Libby Campbell, Bakari Lebby, and Jon Tuttle. Henderson’s play will be workshopped during the summer as part of the Jasper Project’s fourth Play Right Series, then presented as a staged reading. Previous winners of the Jasper Project’s Play Right Series include Randall David Cook’s Sharks and Other Lovers, Colby Quick’s Moon Swallower, and Lonetta Thompson’s Therapy.

The Play Right Series was created by Jasper in 2017 as a catalyst for encouraging new theatre art from South Carolina playwrights. The project is unique in that it invites community members to join the project as Community Producers, individuals and couples who take part in the workshopping of the manuscript while they learn about the process of creating theatre art. A minimum fee of $250 per person allows an individual to become a Community Producer who goes on to be recognized as an honored guest at the staged reading of the new script at the end of the project. Previous Community Producers have included James and Kirkland Smith, Bill Schmidt, Ed Madden, Bert Easter, Wade Sellers, Libby Campbell, Paul Leo and many more. Stay tuned for more information on openings for the 2024 Community Producer roster.

Chad Henderson is a professional theatre artist in South Carolina who is known for directing contemporary plays, musicals and original works that mix music, movement, imagination, and invention to create unforgettable works for the stage. Henderson served as the Artistic Director of Trustus Theatre (2015-2021) in Columbia, SC, and is the current Marketing Director for the South Carolina Philharmonic, where he most recently produced Home for the Holidays at Koger Center for the Arts. Selected Trustus Theatre credits include: The Brother/Sister Plays, Green Day’s American Idiot, Evil Dead, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Last 5 Years, Assassins, The Great Gatsby, Next to Normal, and The Restoration’s Constance - an original musical for which Henderson also authored the book. Henderson has directed with various theatres in South Carolina including Workshop Theatre of South Carolina, The Columbia Children’s Theatre, Spartanburg Next Stage, and Theatre South Carolina (USC). Henderson has completed three residencies at The Studios of Key West, where he developed new works and directed as part of TSKW’s One Night Stand, a 24-hour new play project. His short film Overture, which he wrote and directed, won the 2017 Second Act Film Festival Audience Choice Award. In the last theatre season, Henderson directed Hundred Days (Workshop Theatre), a staged reading of Moon Swallower (Jasper Project), Don’t Let Pigeon Drive the Bus (Columbia Children’s Theatre), and Clyde’s (PURE Theatre). Other Charleston directing credits include Living Dead in Denmark (College of Charleston), The Brothers Size (Piccolo Spoleto), and PURE Theatre’s lauded production of Fun Home in 2018 which was revived for Piccolo Spoleto that same year. Chad lives in Columbia, SC with his wife Bonnie, whose love and support fuels his passion for the theatre. Visit his website for more information on the artist.